On an otherwise quiet Monday, the main bank stocks continued the revival begun last Friday as investors welcomed the collapse of Bank of Ireland's deal with Alliance and Leicester, and AIB was seen as good value following its slippage over the likelihood of it being excluded from a key European index.

AIB made the most gains, closing up 36 cents or 3 per cent to €13.60 (£10.71). One dealer said there were mixed views about AIB being excluded from the Eurostoxx 50 in August and it is still seen as good value in the €13 range. Bank of Ireland, meanwhile, was up 40 cents to €18.10(£14.25) after its management launched a roadshow.

Irish Life & Permanent also notched up gains, moving ahead by 20 cents to €11.10 (£8.74). The bank announced the completion of the purchase of Woodchester Investment Brokers from GE Capital. The pharmaceutical stock, Elan, also contributed to the ISEQ moving up 1.8 per cent on the day. Elan moved up $2 or 4 per cent to €28.40 (£22.37). On the Nasdaq, by the close of the Irish bourse, it had moved up 37.5 cents to $29. It follows the announcement that Elan has begun a joint venture with Quadrant to develop pills to deliver large molecule drugs such as insulin.

Among the industrials, CRH was up 10 cents to €17.95, but Smurfit was back five cents to $2.55 (£2.01). According to one dealer, Smurfit may have been affected by the announcement of US box shipping numbers last week, which hit paper stocks.

Among industrial stocks to move up was Crean, up 2 1/2 cents to €1.10 following its announcement of a demerging process. Oakhill, its print and packaging division, stated yesterday it expected to be listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges shortly.

Ryanair was up 10 cents to €9.40 (£7.40) and on the Nasdaq, it eased up 25 cents to $49.50.